The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-11-13
SINCERE Oh NoT9

upon some subject upon which you
conceive there can be but one opinion
If SO. we're you not astonished at the
different views entertainment Did you
ever confer with others as to the best
plan to pursue to accomplish some mu-
tuaI Object? Or observe to what various
and conflicting conclusions men will
come VINO starting from the same
prenllsas, enIea7or to follow them to
their logical end? If SO, have you not
observed that human intellects are as
different as human faces, and mental
processes as various as modes OF walk
ing2
It must be a matter of profound sur
prise to Bob IngersoIl that Isaac New
ton was Christian; it must puzzle the
scholarly Catholic that all students OF
theology are not Catholics, and the
churchman that all are not Episcopa-
Iians. But it is, and has ever been, the
case. that mankind cannot agree on
premises; that those who agree on pre-
misses, are very apt to disagree as to
means ana CONCLUSIONS.
And so with regard to Morn0nism; it
is a vast subject; all do not understand
it alike. or agree as to what it is. And
again, those who entertain harmonious
views as to it's principles, will be in
harmonious as to its scope, and the
logical effect Of its acceptance. There
are, in brief, Mormons whose faith
varies all the way from the verge
of apostacy to the line OF fan
atheism; there are therefore, there
must be, it is human, multiture OF
starting points, multitude of lines,
multitude of conclusions. Take the
Mormon idea of the revelation on celes-
tial marriage, for instance, and it varies
all the way from may" through
Ought to- to must"
Such divergence in theory is not pc
culiar to the Latter-day Saints; it is
universal. That there is this divergence,
is seen by examining practical Nor
monism, Some have married large
number of wives; others think they
satisfy the principle with two; some in
tend to practice polygamy but put it off
year after year; others have made up
their minds never to go into it.
Now the registered Mormon voters of
this Territory are not pOlygsmists.
They have solemnly sworn not to VIC
late the laws forbidding it. Who can
gainsay their sincerity? Their lives
and their oaths attest it. These are the
men who have voted for the Constitu-
ton, with it's provisions against polyg-
amy. There is no man, Mormon or
Gentle, who can tell absolutely whether
these voters are sincere. But judging
them as we judge men universally, by
their lives and their sacred honor, their
sincerity in this movement is not to be
impugned.
In another way, by the aid of expert
ence and common sense, we reach the
same conclusion. Can it be supposed
for one moment, by any person who
knows that the Mormons are not fools,
that they will frame an anti-polygamy
Constitution and then, upon It's accept
ance, turn around and legalize poly
gamy, orrender its practice successful?
Such an assumption requires a too
violent sacrifice of everything reasona-
BILE.
There is not, we dare say, Mormon
Of years of discretion, who does not
know that Punic faith with the govern
ment will bring down upon the people
q Constitutional amendment, and such
severe laws that the future of Mormon
ism would be far more disa-
greeabIe than is it's present. II
is the solemn opinion of the
writer that if Utah secures State
hood, and does not make reasonable and
effective efforts to suppress polygsmy,
e storm of wrath will gather and burst
around the Mormons compared with
the fury of which their past troubles
will be as the calm of a summer day.
That the Mormons are sincere is ap-
parent from the homogeneous lives Of
the voters and from their oaths, and
becomes a reasonable assumption
whenever We consider the prison bars
and political disabilities awaiting a
breach of the law. That they will not
deceive the government is evident from
the fact that all Mormons realize
that duplieity means the augmented
wrath of the nation. That Statehood
should be granted is evident; since, If
ts,s Mormous arp sincere thev will
punish polygamy, and if they are not
sincere Congress, by Constitutional
amendment. may again take the matter
in their oTn hands.